Nothings wrong at all with religion, just how people use it, it should be used for peace and ideals, yet we start wars and hatred over something ultimately created by man. Even if you believe in God of the Bible and Jesus Christ is your lord and savior, the Bible was created by men not God. I am a Christian myself but I'm not personally too concerned with literal interpretation of the Bible or for that matter going to church. I sort of just believe that people should try to live like Jesus did, and Buddha did, and Gandhi did therefor I label myself Christian, who knows maybe I'm a Buddhist. Nothing in this world has ever done anything it shouldn't have except human beings.

I was reading Mike's post and I had to check if I had written it. The views are pretty much the same as mine. The Bible has been translated and interpreted by so many men that I cannot take it as 100% God's word. Not only that but religions, all of them, have been created by men for men. By men, I mean mankind by the way. I believe in God and Jesus basically as the Bible tells the story and therefore I am a Christian, but I am non-denominational. I do not attend a church because of my personal opinion of religion. To me religions are like political parties, each with it's own little twist. I think people are threatened by your Christianity. They have been forever, so I can't see it changing.

Once when the missionary E. Stanley Jones met with Ghandi he asked him, "Mr. Ghandi, though you quote the words of Christ often, why is that you appear to so adamantly reject becoming his follower?"Ghandi replied, "Oh, I don't reject your Christ. I love your Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ."Apparently Ghandi's rejection of Christianity grew out of an incident that happened when he was a young man practising law in South Africa. He had become attracted to the Christian faith, had studied the Bible and the teachings of Jesus, and was seriously exploring becoming a Christian. And so he decided to attend a church service. As he came up the steps of the large church where he intended to go, a white South African elder of the church barred his way at the door. "Where do you think you're going, kaffir?" the man asked Ghandi in a belligerent tone of voice.Ghandi replied, "I'd like to attend worship here."The church elder snarled at him, "There's no room for kaffirs in this church. Get out of here or I'll have my assistants throw you down the steps."From that moment, Ghandi said, he decided to adopt what good he found in Christianity, but would never again consider becoming a Christian if it meant being part of the church.

I don't think there's anything wrong with religion. It's always good to have something to look forward to, but I just don't agree with people who take religion too far. In my opinion religion is something that's meant to be private. I also don't agree with people spend so much time trying to discredit Christianity that they forget it's only a set of guidlines. It's mostly ethics.

Religion is an unnecessary and unneeded relic from earlier times when we knew absolutely nothing of the world around us and wanted something to believe in so that we would all feel safer. A belief in an all-powerful God must have been quite a relief during some of the darker periods of human history.

Now however religion does more harm than good, it brainwashes people into this idea that faith or belief is somehow the most important thing in the world and anything that challenges that belief is to be avoided or worse, destroyed. I am all for allowing people to discover their own path through life and believe whatever they like with regards to Gods, spirits, souls etc provided they actually take the time to think through their beliefs and work them out for themselves rather than become indoctrinated by some organised religion which, lets face it needs followers in order to continue to exist.

Organised religions actively discourage people from thinking for themselves and fight against the very ideas of scientific enquiry, reason and intelligent debate.

Religion is a good thing. There are radical people in every religion, including atheism, that take their beliefs too far. Religion is not only there to give people faith and hope; it gives people principles and gives people direction on how they should lead their life.

Mike wrote:Nothings wrong at all with religion, just how people use it, it should be used for peace and ideals, yet we start wars and hatred over something ultimately created by man. Even if you believe in God of the Bible and Jesus Christ is your lord and savior, the Bible was created by men not God. I am a Christian myself but I'm not personally too concerned with literal interpretation of the Bible or for that matter going to church. I sort of just believe that people should try to live like Jesus did, and Buddha did, and Gandhi did therefor I label myself Christian, who knows maybe I'm a Buddhist. Nothing in this world has ever done anything it shouldn't have except human beings.

theshoalinstyle wrote:Religion is a good thing. There are radical people in every religion, including atheism, that take their beliefs too far. Religion is not only there to give people faith and hope; it gives people principles and gives people direction on how they should lead their life.

have a problem with what your saying. Religion isn't necessary for moral guidance, otherwise all that jails would be are atheist housing facilities. Society and descent parenting does that, people forget that long before the bible was written societies were following basic moral instincts; against murder, against stealing, etc. Obviously the punishments for breaking these basic laws were extreme and inhumane but lets face it religion wasn't exactly humane at the time either (he who clothes himself in more than one fabric should be put to death). Morals aren't just for the religious.

theshoalinstyle wrote:Religion is a good thing. There are radical people in every religion, including atheism, that take their beliefs too far. Religion is not only there to give people faith and hope; it gives people principles and gives people direction on how they should lead their life.

(Not sure if I'm using the quote function properly).Atheism....a religion??Beliefs.... yeh... sure.Atheists certainly do believe.Belief in science, and the odds that experiments/trial and error, has provided proof, or discounted theories, beyond reasonable doubt.Sure...'science' once suggested the earth was flat.I'm sure all, religious or not, now accept this is not the truth.This is the evolution of science....accepting earlier errors with modified solutions.

Religion, to me, seems to be a 'blind' faith.Reluctance to accept any variation from the first explination, surely, is a very closed minded approach.

This is the major difference between man's findings through research and progress, and common blind faith of any religion.